So – VET

So – VET

SO-VET – Social Entrepreneurship as an Alternative for Young Unemployed is an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships Project with a running time of September 2016 – August 2018.

It is extremely difficult for young people without a formal education that is not in employment and education to find a job. However, even without formal training or labour market experience, youth people do gather competences. Globalization, demographic change, technological advances and the financial crisis have created major challenges for today’s societies. Individuals have to confront rapidly changing data and to learn how to keep up with these changes and advancement.

So-VET is a specific project comes to address NEETs and youth unemployment through the development of social entrepreneurship, making it an alternative for unemployed youth. It is necessary for NEETs to gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies through VAT in terms of social entrepreneurship, a field that is gaining high interest and which can provide a means to exit the crisis.

Target Groups

Young people with a specific focus on the NEET group (not engaged in any form of employment, education or training)

Trainers and teachers in VET institutions

Objectives

The main objective of the project is to upgrade and enhance VET in terms of social entrepreneurship to provide more effective and efficient courses in the subject and to increase the participation and activation of youth in terms of social entrepreneurship, thus decreasing the level of dormancy that exists among NEETs and decreasing the level of unemployment.

Intellectual Outputs

Training Need Analysis Report which will take the form of a final report on research findings in terms of the VET of NEETs in Social Entrepreneurship and the specific needs of the target group (the skill set required as a result of the needs analysis). The needs analysis is expected to reveal the need for well-targeted training areas and the development of tailored curriculum for the development of skills with regards to the social economy and entrepreneurship.

Curriculum for Unemployed Youth to Identify, Develop and Enhance Their Soft Skills which refers to knowledge and skills that youth are expected to acquire, the learning standards or learning objectives they are expected to meet, the units and lessons that teachers must teach, the assignments and projects assigned to students, the books, materials, videos, presentations, and readings used in the courses and the tests, assessments, and other methods used to evaluate student learning and outcomes.

Guideline for the Integration of the Curriculum in Existing National VET Programmes which will examine all factors that are crucial for the successful implementation of curriculum, materials, and tools. Moreover, this guide will describe the training program, its contents, educational materials and tools, as well as, the training methodology.

E-learning Platform which will be developed for the needs of the project, where the young NEETs will be able to attend the pilot on-line courses and receive training from a distance so as to enable the active participation of individuals from different regions who are not always able to be physically present to workshops/seminars/events. It will provide with the open on-line courses, will include an area of Community of Practice for open discussions and exchange and will also include an e-library with important and relevant resources.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which will be a document describing the agreement between all aforementioned groups and which will outline planned actions in terms of the promotion and institutionalization of the European curriculum for social entrepreneurship for NEETs.

Handbook on the Improvement of Social Entrepreneurship which will include all the models, tools, methodologies produced within the project and it will be collected and framed in a didactic guide.